Industrial Defender, Inc. and RuggedCom will jointly develop, market, and co-brand a comprehensive cyber security solution for critical infrastructure industries including power, oil and gas, transportation, water and chemical sectors.

In particular, with North American electric utility customers facing mandatory NERC-CIP compliance by mid-2008 (which are now enforceable due to the recent Jan. 17 FERC approval of the NERC-CIP standards), combined technology solutions from Industrial Defender and RuggedCom deliver an integrated solution for compliance, since bulk electricity asset owners were previously forced to deploy single-purpose, non-integrated solutions from multiple vendors.

RuggedCom offers rugged communications networking infrastructure products for environments requiring hardened specifications including the electrical substation environment, as well as RuggedCom Gauntlet, a user authentication solution for the electric power market that provides secure access to critical cyber assets.

As part of this new strategic partnership and technology integration, RuggedCom will benefit by tapping into Industrial Defender's comprehensive Defense in Depth approach to cyber security, which includes network security professional services, cyber security technology and managed security services. In addition, Industrial Defender can now extend its process control/SCADA network cyber security monitoring and management capabilities into harsh network environments.

"Mandatory NERC-CIP compliance deadlines are forcing electric power companies to ensure the most critical elements of their systems meet stringent security requirements on an abbreviated timeframe," said Marzio Pozzuoli, president and CEO of RuggedCom. "Our partnership with Industrial Defender enables us to deliver our technology with an increased level of cyber security, providing customers with a more comprehensive and complete solution."

RuggedCom also has become the first Industrial Defender Enabled Premier Partner in a new program designed to match technology providers with Industrial Defender's cyber security solutions for the real-time process control/SCADA market. Key integrated solution components include:

• Industrial Defender's Defense-in-Depth cyber security monitoring  and management through the company's Security Event Management (SEM)  console 
• RuggedCom hardened network infrastructure products for harsh  environments, including electrical substations (routers, switches,  serial servers, wireless devices, media converters and Gauntlet user authentication) 
• Industrial Defender cyber security technology products for non-harsh  environments including Firewall/UTM, HIDS and NIDS capabilities 
• Industrial Defender network professional services and managed security  services with proven experience and expertise enabling customers to  meet NERC-CIP assessment requirements